Few people know Akshai Varde as actress Sameera Reddy’s husband, but for others, he’s the owner of the custom bike company Vardenchi. And he has been in the news recently for the custom made chopper in the Pawan Kalyan-Venkatesh starrer, Gopala Gopala.
The bike is creating as much hype as the movie. Varde says, “We met Pawan’s team last year and were given a detailed brief. The idea, much like the bike in Oh My God, was to create something that was as grand as a chariot, more like a vehicle for the modern God.”
While both bikes don’t differ much, Gopala Gopala’s bike has more of a Krishna theme. “There are more elements of Lord Krishna here. Like the feather etc.,” he explains.
“We finished the bike within a month. It makes it one of the fastest projects we’ve delivered so far,” says Varde, adding, “We sat down with Pawan’s production team members and found out what they wanted and we followed their brief while adding our own inputs.”
After their meeting, the production team went to Varde’s factory and checked out a couple of bikes. Varde says, “For Oh My God, we had a support team on the sets, but for Gopala Gopala, they didn’t ask for one.”
So how difficult is making a bike for a film? “When we design bikes for films, we work on different aspects. We have to keep in mind the angle that the bike will be shot from,” he says.
And this isn’t Varde’s first project in T’town. He also custom made a bike for Balakrishna in the 2013 movie, Legend. “When we started making bikes people were fascinated with the idea, these bikes commanded attention and they liked it. Slowly the film industry got intrigued and they approached us,” he adds.
When it comes to the pricing of the bikes, Varde says it all depends on the customisation. “For Oh My God, the bike cost close to a million rupees, but for Gopala Gopala, the price was double.” he adds, “Our basic prices start at Rs 50,000 where we add accessories and style bikes (anything from Harleys to Enfields).
But if we’re making a bike from scratch, the prices can go very high.” So what was the craziest project that he has worked on? Varde laughs, “We worked on a bike for Jackie Shroff, it was called the Skeletor. The bike was made in the shape of the human skeleton.”
